Concord is kicking its 20-year-old waste collection program to the curb this fall and upgrading to automated pickup and single-stream recycling that comes with new branded barrels. Though trash day will remain the same for the 3,413 households that already opt in to the town-run solid waste hauling service, there will be some changes, Concord Public Works Program Analyst Justine St. John said.
Concordians won鈥檛 have to spend time separating paper and cardboard from metals, glass and plastics: All recyclables will now go in the same yellow-topped 96-gallon bin. Trash goes in a matching green-topped 35-gallon toter. Subscribers will, however, see their bills go up: The annual cost for solid waste and recycling collection will rise to $490 鈥� $41 more than the current cost.
The increase was 鈥渦navoidable,鈥� according to St. John, who said that bills would have hit $604 for the year if the town had left the program unchanged. St. John pointed to ballooning costs around waste and recycling disposal and hauling charges. In the past five years, fees for curbside collection and disposal have leaped 39 percent from $1.12 million in 2020 to $1.56 million this year. The biggest culprit: recycling disposal costs, which have risen 319 percent in that same period.